5 Best Tuesday Columns

Joe Scarborough on a 'Survival Guide' for Freshman Congressmen Fondly recalling his years in the Senate, the Politico
columnist offers ten tips to incoming congressmen who are in the
process of moving to D.C. and learning the political ropes. Drawing from
his "mistakes," Scarborough entreats the freshmen to move their
families to the capitol, while making a district office a priority in order to stay focused on their home districts. He advises them to hire a veteran chief-of-staff
to help sort through the tangle of political machinations, and not to surround themselves with a group of "yes" men. "Be
humble," Scarborough writes. He tells them not "demonize" the 534 other actors
at play who are also trying to do their jobs. Don't "cave" by selling votes to
lobbyists, he says, and never "give a speech when you are angry." Finally, he
concludes with advice to remember that "today's enemy will be tomorrow's ally, and
this year's ranking member will be next year's chairman."

Bob Herbert on the Future of Black America Last week's
New York Times report about the growing achievement gap was the latest
piece of discouraging news about the challenges facing black Americans.
Can anything be done? The New York Times columnist isn't sure, but he
believes the "first and most important step would be a major effort to
begin knitting the black family back together." More than anything, it's
the "family that protects the child against ignorance and physical
harm, that offers emotional security and the foundation for a strong
sense of self, that enables a child to believe--truly--that wonderful
things are possible." Times are tough all over, notes Herbert, and "the
terrible economic downturn has made it more difficult than ever to douse
this raging fire that is consuming the life prospects of so many young
blacks." With funding cuts for urban programs likely on the way, now is
the time to start making progress in the area that doesn't require
outside assistance: at home.

George Clooney and John Prendergast on Sudan's Peace Process Noting
that the White House has dispatched John Kerry with a peace proposal to
Sudan's warring factions, The Guardian
contributors praise the move as a "giant step towards
avoiding the kind of bloodshed" previously seen in the riven nation. Although a
solution to an impending north-south war may difficult to achieve, "a
complex but workable peace can be brokered if all interested parties
become more deeply involved." Clooney and Prendergast then put forward a
series of proposals to help lay the foundation for peace. They include
reaching a "mutually satisfactory agreement" on the disputed territory
of Abyei, an oil-revenue sharing agreement and protections for minority
groups backed by "significant international consequences" for breaches
of conduct. The U.S. role is to act as the "invisible third party" in
negotiations, demanding "peace and security" in Darfur. The article ends with a plea for citizens to
maintain public awareness. "Keep the pressure
on them. Support the peace process. Your voice can prevent a war. Not
guns. Not money. Just our voices."

Anne Applebaum on European Austerity France's pension reform and
England's budget cuts have dominated headlines, but The Washington
Post columnist writes that other Europeans countries are also making tough
cuts to stymie spiraling debt. "Last weekend, a Greek government which
has cut public-sector pay and lowered pensions won a clear victory in
local elections," writes Applebaum. Last month in Latvia, voters
reelected a government "that cut public sector workers' pay by 50 percent." Couple
these wins with a British government coalition that remains "strangely
popular" and it's clear European voters respect politicians who stand up
to entitlement spending. America lacks this reformist zeal. It's easy
to blame President Obama for increasing state spending, but Americans
"haven't practiced what we preach [about free markets] for a long time,
much longer than we generally recognize." Applebaum cites the looming
bankruptcy of the U.S. Postal Service, which lost $8.5 billion last
year. "Why," she wonders, "in this age of multiple courier services,
cheap phone calls and e-mail, is the U.S. Postal Service still a
government-owned company? Germany privatized its postal service in
1995."

Stanley Fish on the Non-Existent College Cost Crisis
In their new book Why Does College Cost So Much?, economists Robert B.
Archibald and David H. Feldman argue college is more affordable now that
it ever was in the past, and the notion that universities are
giving undergrads short-shrift is incorrect. It's a thesis The New York
Times columnist enthusiastically agrees with. For those who think
colleges devote too many resources to research, Fish argues the more
irresponsible act would be to assume "a Luddite stance and hold out for
pencil, paper and blackboard instruction." A college degree is
expensive, yes, but that's because education is not an industry that
"produces durable goods on an assembly-line model or offers services
that can be delivered by relatively unskilled labor aided by new
devices." Like law and medicine, education is a specialized field, one
where "advances in technology lead to a demand for
ever-more-highly-educated personnel and mechanization is frowned upon
because of a concern with quality." That a college education has evolved
into a necessity and not a luxury item shows that the system is
working.